Video: How Far Will You Go For A Case Of Motor Oil?

We all know the pains of how expensive it’s getting to enjoy our vehicles; every time we stop at the gas pump those pains gnarl at our insides like a bad combination platter at the local grease pit lunch stand. At around $4 per gallon, gasoline has become one of those high-cost expenses that drains a bank account, especially when you have a classic musclecar or hot rod that only gets a few gallons to the mile!

While we know the cost of a gallon of gas – thanks to towering signs telling us how proud they are to charge us an arm and a leg – but the cost for motor oil is sometimes overlooked because we don’t buy 15 gallons of oil every few days. At nearly $5 per quart, that makes motor oil about $20 per gallon, and thankfully we only spend that $20-30 every few thousand miles.

Apparently, though, for some people the price of a quart of oil is such a commodity that they turn to theft for it, and utilizing the power of mathematics they steal it in bulk. Perhaps stealing one quart of oil at a time is not proper time management, so 35-year-old Jorge Sanchez of Southgate, California, decided to steal 24 quarts of oil at a time from a local Costco.

Sanchez entered the store equipped with bungee-cords, and opened a couple cases of oil and strapped 24 quarts to his body, under his clothing, and tried to exit the store. It’s said that employees noticed he was a little thicker than when he entered (and not from the free food samples) and that he “sloshed” as he walked out the door. A chase ensued and at the time Sanchez was apprehended he apparently lost some weight from not strapping the oil securely. Yes, we’ll say it: he was a few quarts low.

Police said they found 50 more quarts of oil in his car, but didn’t comment whether they were purchased legally or if he had succeeded in earlier thefts. Times are tough all over, and we’re all looking for a break in this horrible economy, but stealing 24 quarts of motor oil by strapping them to your body? What we want to know is how did he do all of this completely undetected in the store? Don’t they have cameras in every aisle, let alone 200 people at any given moment wandering around?

We also wonder if he’s going to get a 30k, 60k or 90k sentence for his crime?